Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

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One tip I should have included in my tips for more video views is to post your articles on a timely basis so you don’t leave people waiting. :) It’s been almost 2 weeks since I linked to part 1 of the 10 tips for more video views. Here’s round two of the tips. Once again, these may sound like common sense after hearing them, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to follow even the simplest suggestions for getting more video views.

Tips 6-10

Social bookmark your video – if your video is worthy, give it a kick in the pants by social bookmarking the video. If it’s really good, suggest your friends do the same.

Guest video blog – a great way to get additional exposure for your videos is to appear as a guest on other people’s video shows. Be sure to reference your own videos so that people know where to find you.

Subscribe to yourself with online newsreaders – There are a ton of online news reading services that won’t track your content if you don’t have any subscribers in the service. A great way to get over this hurdle is to create an account for yourself and subscribe. At least that way you actually exist.

Press releases for newsworthy events – By tying a press release to your videos you can dramatically increase the number of viewers for events in your marketing world.

Have a sitemap – This one is specific to the site where you embed your videos. Since you’re creating posts based on your previous videos per the tip in part one, having a sitemap for your blog is equally important. The second part of this is to have an account with Google Webmaster Tools so that you can submit your sitemap.

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As most of the people who know me already know, I haven’t had a “real job” in years. Instead I’ve been happily helping people solve frustrating computer problems through my blog and email newsletter. This provides a great living, I get to set my own hours, and while there’s a temptation to work more than I should, I also have the advantage of taking a few weeks off when I need to, without significantly impacting my income. In addition to knowing that I’m helping people everyday, I have the added bonus of not being stuck doing the same thing day in and day out. I can

There’s plenty of room for you to do the same thing if you want to. I’m more than happy to provide whatever guidance I can to people who want to strike out on their own. I ran across Rat Race Rebellion this morning, thanks to this Today Show interview with Dr. Danielle Babb, author of Making Money Teaching Online.

Rat Race Rebellion appears to be a great resource for people who are looking for legitimate online work (as in not the get rich quick kind). The spirit of Rat Race Rebellion is in line with 4 Hour Work Week, in that you’re leaving behind the corporate world to pursue something you enjoy on a schedule more fitting with your personal lifestyle. While I think the interview is a little basic in it’s coverage of what you need to do to work from home successfully, Dr. Babb is targeting a specific type of working from home.

If you’re willing to take the get rich slow approach to making money online, here’s a very simplistic formula to join the Rat Race Rebellion:

1) Keep you day job

2) Find a topic you’re passionate about (if you aren’t passionate about the topic don’t bother, you’ll quit).

3) Register a Domain name and find a cheap hosting provider (don’t use hosted services like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com)

4) Post 2-3 things about your topic on the blog every day. Be sure to link to interesting articles and videos you find related to your topic.

5) Post at least 1 video a week showing people how to do something related to your topic.

6) Provide easy ways for people to subscribe to your blog via RSS and email. Feedburner provides some great free tools to get you started.

7) Read other people who are active in niches similar to yours, comment when appropriate on their blogs. You can track them easily using FeedDemon.

8) Study online tips on how to get more traffic to your blog and videos. Implement these tips in a way that fits with your personal goals.

9) Sign up for advertising solutions like Adsense, Commission Junction, Shareasale.com, etc. Implement the advertising on your site.

10) When the advertising revenue from your blog is more than your current job and enough to cover things like health insurance and other perks you currently get from your employer, consider leaving your job and blogging full time. This last step will likely take 2 years to achieve, maybe longer depending on many variables.

Notice I placed advertising at the bottom of this list. While the ad revenue is how you will make money with this approach, it’s far more important to have a solid foundation before you worry about how that foundation will make you money.

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There was a recent discussion on the Yahoo Videoblogging discussion list about hiring SEO services to get your videos more views. While there might be a case for this, there are a number of things you can do quickly to help get yourself more views (and a little search engine optimization) without paying someone else. Online marketing guru Jim Kukral, host of The Daily Flip, asked me if I’d shoot some video explaining the tips, so here’s part one. They sound like common sense when you hear them, but that’s largely because they are. Most people who complain about their video views aren’t following most or all of these guidelines, so here’s part one…

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Tips 1 – 5:

Be interesting – This may be the most important tip of all. If your videos are lame, no one will watch them no matter what else you do.

Write good titles – When you post a video online, the best way for people to find it is through the text related to the post. Titles are the foundation of good text. If you write a succinct clear title, people will find it easier to associate your video with what they are looking for.

Include text on the page – A good title isn’t enough, you also need supporting text. If you don’t write good supporting text, search engines won’t index your video well and it won’t be found easily for related searches.

Get an Email Subscription – Many video bloggers swear by using RSS with enclosures as the primary means of acquiring subscribers. While that’s an important option, it’s also important to simply provide an email subscription for those people who want to be reminded when you have something new.

Embed the video – Make it easy for people to watch your video by embedding it on the page you write about it. Don’t make people download the video. Don’t make them open a new browser window. Give people what they want in as few steps as possible.

BTW, subscribe to The Daily Flip, there’s even better stuff than this.

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Malaysian pop star Guang Liang, who is ridiculously popular throughout China, seems to have a huge following among piano enthusiasts for his megahit Tong Hua (which translates to Fairy Tale). You can find Guang Liang sheet music at many of the DIY sheet music sites like TabNabber.com
For an idea of what all the hype is about, you can see the music video as presented by YouTube here:

Coupled with the tragic music video and the more marketable name Michael Wong, Guang Liang is quite possibly the Malaysian equivalent to Justin Timberlake. I’m guessing there’s crossover potential here, although currently, the official Michael Wong site is available only in traditional and simplified Chinese.

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While there’s certainly room to expand on the details of each of the major battles of the Civil War, the Civil War in Four Minutes video presentation from The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum is one of the most engaging visualizations of historic conflict I’ve ever seen. It shows a visual representation of where the North and South divided the country, shifting control of territory throughout the war, and highlights of various battles. In watching the video, it appears the North gaining control of the Mississippi was a clear turning point.

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I’m trying an experiment with Eyejot. Everyday, I’m going to ask a random question via video and collect responses via video. I’ll pick the nine answers I like best, compile them with the question and publish the responses the following morning. A new question will appear each day.

Here’s the first one:

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One of the more unique things I saw at CES 2007 was the cell phone condom demonstrated by Skins Mobile. I’m not sure how else to describe the product, since it looks very much like a condom that you stretch over any cell phone and tie off on one end to seal out any outside elements like dirt, water, snow or whatever other environmentals you might encounter. The video demonstrates how to protect your phone with the Skins Mobile product while lounging in a jacuzzi. The Palm Treo 750 used in the demo was unharmed; it remains dry and fully functional.

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One of the best advertisements from the 2007 Superbowl was the the Doritos ad linked above. It’s clever, it made me laugh, and while I won’t eat Doritos anytime soon, I’m likely to remember it. The Doritos commercial was not made for $12 as noted on Fred Wilson’s A VC. You can’t even buy a CVS disposable video camera for $12, so already someone is in for more than $12 in gear. There’s no video editing suite with a sub-$12 price tag, unless you discount the $1500 purchase price of a Mac when considering iMovie. The car driven in the ad cost someone more than $12. So at best you could say the kids who made the video shelled out $12 of their own money, but someone paid several thousand dollars for gear and an education to get the college kids to the point where they only needed to spend $12 to make a commercial.

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